H1 2024 Whitepaper: China's Food-Medicine Supplements Market

Key Finding 1

China's food-medicine supplements market sits at a structural crossroads: on two leading Chinese marketplaces, unit sales volume continued to grow in MAT2024 while average prices fell, signaling intensifying price competition even as consumer demand holds firm.

The food-medicine homology market — spanning traditional tonic ingredients classified by China's National Health Commission as both food and medicine — reached CN¥ 36.61 billion in revenue on two leading Chinese marketplaces during the MAT2024 rolling year (May 2023 to April 2024), and volumes rose to 470 million units, up from 460 million in the prior period. Average product prices fell from CN¥ 87.3 per unit in MAT2023 to CN¥ 79.2 in MAT2024, a change of -9.3% that reflects a market under sustained pricing pressure as competition intensified. Beyond these marketplaces, China's broader nutritional health food industry reached CN¥ 588.5 billion in market size by 2022 and is projected to surpass CN¥ 800 billion by 2027, underscoring the long-run structural growth opportunity within this category.

Key Finding 2

Within a market under price pressure, high-growth ingredient segments — led by poria, donkey-hide gelatin, sea buckthorn, and honeysuckle — are posting revenue increases exceeding 20% year-on-year, offering clear category opportunities for brands willing to move beyond commoditized incumbents.

Among the 20 largest food-medicine homology ingredients on two leading Chinese marketplaces, poria (茯苓) emerged as the standout performer with +54.2% YoY revenue growth, followed by honeysuckle (金银花) at +103.9%, sea buckthorn (沙棘) at +31.6%, and donkey-hide gelatin (阿胶) at +20.2%. These gains contrast sharply with established high-volume ingredients such as wolfberry/goji (枸杞), which edged up just +6.8%, demonstrating that category leadership is not permanent. The liver-protection market exemplifies this dynamic most vividly: reishi mushroom (灵芝) surged +653.4% following the National Health Commission's November 2023 decision to add it to the food-medicine homology directory, illustrating how regulatory catalysts can unlock rapid channel expansion.

Key Finding 3

Functional health segments targeting chronic disease prevention — particularly the "three highs" (high blood pressure, blood sugar, and lipids) and liver protection — are outpacing the broad tonic market, with the liver-protection market growing +34.1% YoY and the "three highs" segment posting +26.6% YoY.

Growing public health awareness of chronic conditions is reshaping demand within the food-medicine homology category. The liver-protection market reached approximately CN¥ 3 billion in MAT2024 revenue, sustaining a remarkable compound expansion from CN¥ 1.25 billion in MAT2022. The "three highs" food-medicine homology segment reached CN¥ 181.97 million in MAT2024, up from CN¥ 143.69 million in MAT2023. Individual ingredients within these functional segments are posting even more dramatic gains: notoginseng (三七) grew +584.7% YoY in the "three highs" market, gastrodia (天麻) +155.8%, and American ginseng (西洋参) +248.0%. These figures confirm that Chinese consumers are increasingly treating food-medicine homology products as preventive healthcare rather than traditional luxury tonics.

Key Finding 4

Two converging product trends — premiumized gift set packaging and ready-to-eat snackification — are expanding the addressable market for food-medicine homology products beyond their traditional elderly consumer base into younger, lifestyle-oriented demographics.

Gift set products outperformed the overall food-medicine homology market in MAT2024, with revenue growing +6.0% YoY and sales volume rising +27.7% YoY. Gift set brands including Yanzhiwo (燕之屋), Cheong Kwan Jang (正官庄), and Dong-E E-Jiao (东阿阿胶) set reference prices from CN¥ 238 to CN¥ 1,199, positioning these products as premium gifting vehicles for family occasions and corporate gifting. Simultaneously, the "ready-to-eat tonic products" trend on social media platforms saw discussion volume grow +527.4% in MAT2023 and a further +155.7% in MAT2024, as consumers aged 35 and under — who rose 4.2 percentage points as a share of the discussion audience — sought convenient wellness formats suited to busy urban lifestyles. Male consumers now account for 56.1% of food-medicine homology social media engagement, up from 43.3% in MAT2023, a demographic shift with significant implications for product positioning and channel strategy.